Reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju and 2025 Tour winner GM Fabiano Caruana will be playing in the 2026 Grand Chess Tour. The list of full tour participants was announced on Tuesday for a tour with a $2 million prize fund that will take off in the first week of May in Poland.
The chess world can be happy with a very active world champion also in 2026, the year that he’ll be defending his title. Gukesh once again signed up for the Grand Chess Tour, which will see its 12th iteration this year. 2025 winner Caruana will be present as well, defending his title in a field full of usual suspects. In order of rating, they are GMs Vincent Keymer (playing the full tour for the first time), Anish Giri, Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Levon Aronian.
by the end of 2026 gukesh will have played more games as wc than kasparov + kramnik combined https://t.co/gskZ9vmUtt
— MrDodgy (@ChessProblem) January 27, 2026
These nine full tour participants will compete in both classical tournaments and two of three rapid and blitz events. Wildcard players for all events will be announced at a later date.
Grand Chess Tour 2026 Full Tour Participants
| Fed | Player | Rating | World rank | Born |
| GM Fabiano Caruana | 2795 | 3 | 1992 | |
| GM Vincent Keymer | 2776 | 4 | 2004 | |
| GM Anish Giri | 2760 | 6 | 1994 | |
| GM Alireza Firouzja | 2759 | 7 | 2003 | |
| GM Praggnanandha Rameshbabu | 2758 | 8 | 2005 | |
| GM Gukesh Dommaraju | 2754 | 9 | 2006 | |
| GM Wesley So | 2753 | 11 | 1993 | |
| GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2734 | 16 | 1990 | |
| GM Levon Aronian | 2729 | 20 | 1982 |
The top 10 players who are missing as full participants, just like in 2025, are GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, and Wei Yi. Carlsen is likely going to be one of the wildcards for one of the rapid and blitz events, but we already know that the world number-one won’t be playing in the first leg of the tour in Warsaw because he has signed up for the Tepe Sigeman tournament.
The 2026 Tour will start on May 3, 2026, in Warsaw, Poland with the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland. Once again, the top four players at the end of the season will advance to the GCT Finals, consisting of knockout matches and this time hosted at the newly expanded Saint Louis Chess Club. (Last year, Caruana took the trophy at the Finals in Sao Paulo, Brazil.) The full schedule looks as follows:
Grand Chess Tour 2026 Schedule
| Event | Date | Location | |
| Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland | May 3-10 | Warsaw, Poland | |
| Superbet Chess Classic Romania | May 12-24 | Bucharest, Romania | |
| SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia | June 29-July 6 | Zagreb, Croatia | |
| Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz | July 31-August 7 | St. Louis, United States | |
| Sinquefield Cup | August 8-21 | St. Louis, United States | |
| GCT Finals | August 21-28 | St. Louis, United States |
The prize fund, provided by the Super Foundation and the Saint Louis Chess Club (backed by billionaire Rex Sinquefield), is U.S. $2 million which will be allocated as follows:
- $200,000 per rapid & blitz event (three total)
- $350,000 per classical event (two total)
- $450,000 additional prize purse at the GCT Finals
- $250,000 in bonus allocation ($125,000 at each regular season classic event)
“The GCT has always represented the highest level of professional chess,” said Tour ambassador and co-founder Garry Kasparov. “What distinguishes the GCT is not only the strength of the field, but the integrity, tradition and global vision behind it. This season’s lineup reflects exactly why the Tour remains the ultimate stage for elite players and fans of the game.”
International Arbiter Ignatius Leong from Singapore, an old friend of Kasparov’s, has been appointed as the chief arbiter while former U.S. Champion GM Alex Onischuk is the Tour’s Deputy Executive Director.
